In late October, Kamloops mayor and councilors gave local authorities “green light” to increase parking enforcement in Downtown and Northshore areas. Since then, they are considering implementing metered parking in Tranquille Corridor, something that might represent a threat for drivers and an opportunity for local businessmen according to what Bill Sarai city councilor predicts. The search for new -short and long -term parking measures as well as the widespread concern regarding parking spaces being occupied for prolonged periods of time led them to consider this decision. However, the issue appears to be more complex than that.
Tranquille road corridor is located between Vernon Avenue and Wilson Street and runs from the North Shore to the Brocklehurst neighborhood; areas surrounded by busy and dynamic places of productive social and economic activities that are currently evaluating the impact these future measures may bring.
According to the most recent report of the City of Kamloops Parking Management Plan (https://kamloops.civicweb.net/document/172619/REP_Parking%20Management.pdf?handle=477BE6A4EB004E07A226B4A8595FC2D5) , on average, each parking spot on Tranquille Road within the Vernon and Wilson areas provides parking for 3,27 vehicles per day. Currently, street parking in this area, as in the majority areas of Kamloops is free, except in Downtown core, which is the only area with metered parking. This is the problem that worries Northshore drives and business owners since they don’t want Tranquille corridor to become a paid parking area.
Current parkimeter at Downtown Core (Nov 17/2023)
However, Kamloops authorities’ consideration of charging parking emerged to address the lack of parking spaces availability along Tranquille corridor. The results from city of Kamloops Parking Management Plan public survey conducted to 87% visitors of North Shore, 11% residents and 2% Tranquille corridor business owners/ employers indicated that for 60% of the respondents, street parking availability in the area was “fair to very poor” while for 69% parking lot availability was “fair to very poor”.
Ben Cluchy, an employer from Indigo parking company who has been working on parking for over 10 years in Downtown and Northshore, confirmed the lack of parking spaces availability and vehicle congestion that tends to happen on these zones; “I actually go to the North Shore at least twice a day and we patrol in the Holiday inn on the dark shore where there’s lot of parking but there is also congestion of parking in that area as well,” Cluchy said.
He agrees with the extension of metered parking in Tranquille since he considers this measure a mechanism for realizing appropriate studies to identify issues that parking is creating for people that stay long at the North Shore and implementing solutions to alleviate those concerns.
For him, it makes sense for Kamloops to expand and have metered parking on North Shore due to the constant growth and urban development of the city, “The area is continuously growing and as people have noticed with the North Shore, there´s new buildings, new apartments and they are getting bigger which creates more parking issues for people that are looking for parking,” Ben Cluchy said.
Despite this, a considerable group of local businessmen along Tranquille continue being against this decision. An anonymous local pharmacist from I.D.A Pharmacy at North Shore said he didn’t want metered parking over Tranquille as people parking there would make difficult business vehicles circulation and there would not be enough space since it is a very narrowed and congested road. Instead, he insisted that Tranquille should be a walking road.
Also, he affirmed metered parking implementation would not help his business since people could replace Northshore buying establishments with other free parking places, just as its happening in Downtown; “We don’t want to go and shop in Downtown because there is no space and wherever you want to park weekly then you have to go pay to the metered and even for five minutes or 10 minutes or half an hour or one hour,” the anonymous pharmacist said.
In fact, his declarations are in coherence with the average of responses from City of Kamloops long term parking management survey realized to local residents and business owners online in 2022 where many affirmed free parking was one of the reasons why people preferred shopping on Northshore instead of Downtown.
North Shore parking lot area (Nov 17/2023)
According to the City of Kamloops Parking Management Plan report, 56% of people disagree with providing metered parking for non-residents on residential streets and 54% disagree with the decision of providing metered parking along Tranquille corridor.
Additionally, the anonymous local I.D.A pharmacist said Tranquille road metered parking extension should be avoided, otherwise traffic and visibility problems would persist. He insisted that the entire Tranquille Business must establish some arrangements to solve visibility risks since the constant parking and exit of vehicles on both sides of the road makes difficult for pedestrians to identify which vehicle is coming; “Many people come from work and they just park and go over till 5:30. The visibility from right and left is difficult,” he anonymously said.
On the other hand, Ben Cluchy affirmed that although parking meter decisions could affect business owners who have parking lots for their customers, it could also cause people who were not previously willing to pay for their parking to do so.
He highlighted the benefits of metered parking on reinforcing laws, covering social and insecurity problematics common on the area, and helping business owners who depend of parking lots incomes; “The positive reinforcement we try to provide to our guest is to try to address the business owners concerns with parking and then install meters or enforce as needed for problem areas,” Ben Cluchy said.
Basically, there still does not seem to be a clear panorama that ensures metered parking implementation on Tranquille Corridor. The consensus between local businesses, drivers and Kamloops local authorities remains contradictory. Evidently, the project represents revenues for the city to invest in different aspects, but the exact amount that could be earned is not yet known. However, for now, both citizens and authorities are putting their efforts in short-term parking measures to reconsider the viability these kinds of decisions might bring for the city’s future.
Published by: Daniel Vergara Pombo
